Poland has expanded its list of strategic companies to include major media and telecoms firms, in a move that will protect them from takeovers by Russia-linked entities, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday. Any acquisition of firms on the list would need to be approved by the Polish government, Reuters reports.

Tusk said the decision was driven by concerns over Russian interference in European democracies, referencing Romania’s recent presidential elections. “Russia is increasingly trying to interfere in the lives of European countries,” Tusk said at a press briefing. “In the East they are interested in taking over our media.”

The updated list now includes private broadcasters TVN and Polsat, telecommunications firms Cyfrowy Polsat, P4 and T-Mobile, as well as electronics and aerospace manufacturer WB Electronics.

The move follows reports of a potential sale of TVN to a company linked to Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

TVN, owned by the American Warner Bros. Discovery group, is seen as broadly supportive of the government led by Tusk, a centrist, and critical of Poland’s previous nationalist-populist administration.

Until now, Poland’s list of strategic companies primarily consisted of energy, chemical and telecommunications firms.

Tusk said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting: "I do not need to justify the necessity for protection against the risk of these companies, which are key to the security of the Polish state, falling into the wrong hands."

Ensuring that media remain free from hostile interference is “essential,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson was cited as saying by Poland’s PAP state news agency on Monday.